[R] problem installing R in Ubuntu 10.04 -HELP

[Mike Marchywka]

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> Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2011 14:53:07 +0100
> From: r.m.krug at gmail.com
> To: marchywka at hotmail.com
> CC: graham.williams at togaware.com; r-help at r-project.org
> Subject: Re: [R] problem installing R in Ubuntu 10.04 -HELP
>
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> On 02/22/2011 02:33 PM, Mike Marchywka wrote:
> >
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> > ----------------------------------------
> >> Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2011 11:12:26 +0100
> >> From: r.m.krug at gmail.com
> >> To: Graham.Williams at togaware.com
> >> CC: r-help at r-project.org
> >> Subject: Re: [R] problem installing R in Ubuntu 10.04 -HELP
> >>
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> >> On 02/22/2011 10:49 AM, Graham Williams wrote:
> >>> I have seen this issue reported by others though I don't know what the
> >>> root cause is. Others have solved it by removing the .Rdata file
> >>> causing the problem (there must be one if it says so). It would
> >>> usually, I think, be in the folder where you start R.
> >>
> >> Does R start with
> >>
> >> R --vanilla
> >>
> >> If yes, check for .RData, and the other files loaded when starting R
> >>
> >> ?.First
> >>
> >> shoud give you an idea which files they are and where they are stored.
> >>
> >> Also:
> >>
> >> try
> >>
> >> locate Rdata
> >>
> >> to locate all Rdata files.
> >>
> >
> > Presumably this is best as it looks where "R" looks
>
> I don't understand that statement - locate looks in an index, based on
> the whole file system (more or less), whereas R looks in specific
> locations ($HOME and certain other directories dependant on the
> installation directory of R. 


I always use find, I just assumed that the locate thing could
be specialized to R related locations or it was actually an R command. 
If you "man locate" it suggestes things like db's are available for indexing stuff
of interest. Apparently whole fs is default. This wouldn't make any sense if the database 

hadn't been updated since you tried to install stuff you were having problems with

and AFAICT there is no reason to believe it had. 



>
> > but I'm curious
> > why the OP couldn't locate all of them with "find -name "*rData*" ?
>
> Well - a "find" on a complete HDD takes some time. Furthermore I just
> realised that "locate" is case sensitive, and find too. So "find -name
> "*.rData" will not find the .Rdata file ... Just something to keep in mind.

I'm lucky I could find the shift key this morning, but usualy there is
an insensitivity option, I think iname in find. When things get all messed
up, it often is worth the time - just direct the result to a file
and sort through it when it is done. 

>
> > When stuff like this happens on linux there are usually tools available
> > to fix it without relying on the things you are trying to fix working at all.
>
> Absolutely - But I had exactly the same problem after installing rattle,
> but as I usually use --vanilla, it did not affect me that much. It took
> me quite some time to figure out what was happening. This raises the
> question, if R should not have a "fallback" mechanism, so that at least
> the other data in an Rdata file could be read (obviously giving a HUGE
> warning!)
>
> Cheers,
>
> Rainer